User Research
Homie Product owner conducted Quantitive and Qualitative research to address “Finding a Place to Rent”
Qualitative Research:
Gathering ‘Desired Outcomes’ to understand what jobs people are trying to get done (10 renters)
Quantitative Research:
Get people to rate the importance of the desired outcomes, as well as how well they are able to get them done today
Goal:
Focus on opportunities requiring the least amount of effort to product the highest returns
Prioritsations:
Making improvements in areas that are already satisfied
Making improvements that satisfy unimportant outcomes
Making improvements that negatively impact other outcomes
Analysis:
Importance + (Importance - Satisfaction) = Opportunity Score
- Top renters needs
Weekend viewings (16.03)
Evening viewings (15)
Back -to-back viewings (13.97)
Friendly experience with person at viewing (13.53)
Search by time of public transport to geopoint (13.53 )
Understand right to rent, financial requirements (13.38 )
Search on mobile (13.38 )
Covering all search results across multiple sites (12.65 )
Homie.rent
Homie.rent is a personal home finder that takes the stress out of finding your dream home in London
Problem:
Users who want to rent in London that face 3 key problems; Time, Stress, and Money.
Solution:
Homie is a home finding platform that takes the hassle out of finding you that perfect home.
Customers do the searching (if they want) and Homie does the rest.
Homie calls up the agents, schedules back to back tours and Taxis you between viewings until you find the one for a one-off fee of £49. Also saving customers money by less days off, transport costs and big discounts with Homie partners.
Target Users:
Expats, Busy Professionals, Families and Students
Platform:
Mobile first, Responsive web
Customer Journey Summary on Mobile
Landing Page (Concept)
We regularly designed and tested a series of landing pages.
Problem:
Information overload on home page and users were confused about what the Homie service is about.
• Do Homie own their own stock?
• What are the key benefits of this new service?
• Be more aspirational search friendly.
• Start searching and view homes instantly
Solution & Opportunity:
• De-clutter the content and create copy around the key 3 problem pillars; Time Poor, Stress, and Money.
• Highlight that Homie is the king of Tours - We can Tour 8 homes in 2 hours.
• To start the search experience directly on the landing page and educating the user about the Homie product
during the process.
• Homie search the whole market (partner agents and portals)
• Productise the service into different tiers of service. (Free / Single Tour / Unlimited Tours)
• Highlight new ways of searching features on the platform
- Commute Calculator, Neighbour Hood matcher and a Affordability Calculator
Prototype:
Desktop - https://marvelapp.com/74c3gc3/screen/58225049
Mobile- https://marvelapp.com/409944h/screen/58230527
Mobile Friendly Designs
Landing page
Problem
Users think Homie are a property portal or a relocation agent.
Solution & Opportunity:
• To feature the Homie benefits as a services matrix that users can understand and compare to services they think Homie are.
• Improve copy to be more precise
• Add explainer video link higher in the screen
• More aspirational imagery to connect with users.
STEP 1
Onboarding
To keep the on-boarding process to a simple, seamless and clutter-free experience
Problem:
• Large funnel (high dropouts, brand and product exposure) vs Small funnel ( serious customers, high retention)
• Visitors to the site who didn’t full understand the service presumed the site was another search portal (Rightmove, Zoopla) questioned why they had to create a profile to view properties.
• Just wanted to view homes
Research:
• How users felt having to sign up and create a profile
• Test what percentage of users to the site convert into real transactions and what drop off due to being more curious of the product.
• Test whether users prefer to fill in their search criteria on one single form or breakdown the questions in stages.
• If users didn’t mind the search process compared to time poor users preferring a curated list for them.
Solution:
• We found majority of the users didn’t mind searching themselves.
• Open the search experience from the beginning without having to sign up.
• Users enjoyed the experience of entering their search criteria in steps.
• On desktop - show the product in the background with the Sign up box over so users get a visual understanding what to expect.
• List benefits again on why to use Homie.
Opportunities:
• Remove - Password and send a magic link to the user.
• Move ‘sign up’ further down the funnel to avoid blockers - just before payment process.
• Use landing page as the start of the search process to get user down the funnel.
Prototype:
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/1h5b85b6/screen/59819381
STEP 2
Search
Homie was initially an end to end process for renters who wanted a curated search. From entering their criteria to booking and scheduling tours with agents, and taken on a back to back tour to finally making an offer.
Problem:
Users who skip the landing page, think Homie is just another search portal and would miss our key service propositions.
Users wanted more flexibility in an open style search.
Users wanted to test, explore and experience the product first before investing time in signing up and paying for the service.
Renters who are new to London were confused about which neighbourhood to live in.
We found that users wanted the following features:
1) Map View
2) Ability to change their search criteria easily
3) Ability to view distance to tube station
4) Ability to add homes they’ve seen online to their tour
Solution & Opportunity:
• Create an open search functionality so users can test out the platform.
• Give users search tools that will help them find homes in areas that Homie cover,
• Added value of search tool eg. commute times and lifestyle needs.
• Add a map view to show where homes are located along with its price.
• Ability to add links of homes they have found online.
• A banner to display the key propositions Homie offer.
Prototype:
Desktop - https://marvelapp.com/40337ii/screen/58824491
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/93e6e78/screen/58929363
STEP 3
Property Details
Users click to view more details on the property before either adding it to their tour or dismissing it.
Problem:
Need to create value and informative content for each property to inspire and aid the user to make an informed decision.
Solution & Opportunity:
• Open the property details page in its own window instead of a modal
• To create a page that can be shared and contain more valuable content.
• Transport link and distances - Show nearest stations and walking times.
• Commute time for each property to work.
• Map view with areas of interest ie. schools, restaurants, transport.
• An area guide to give a flavour of the neighbourhood.
• Affordability calculator - show max rental per month based on the total household income.
• Similar properties nearby to give more options and continue the user journey.
This gives the tool for users to make a more informed decision on the area, lifestyle and not just the home.
Research:
We found that any time and distance metric used to help users select a home was well received. Users found the functionality of the commute calculator extremely useful and therefore we also added this feature to the search pages. Users test mentioned this is a more useful property page compared to sites as Rightmove and Zoopla.
Prototype:
Desktop - https://marvelapp.com/706d8eb/screen/58333802
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/45j2809/screen/57735785
STEP 4
Add to Tour & Schedule Tour
Users highlight the homes they want to see and schedule a tour of when they want to do the viewing.
Once a user has experienced a Tour - It’s an AHA moment for them.
Problem:
Long period of wait between signing up and booking a tour.
Users can be confused on what a Tour entails.
Users questioned how many should they select?
Why am I paying? What are the benefits.
OKR:
Get users on Tour
Solution & Opportunity:
• To create a sense of urgency for the user
• Educate the users about this fast moving market with Homie Banner tips.
eg. “Best homes stay on the market for an average of only 3 days!”
• Show ‘X’ amount of people have added this home to their Tour
• ‘Good Value” pill to highlight homes that should be considered.
• Design an e-commerce style “Shopping Basket’ when a homes is added to a Tour.
• Show a time estimation of how long a tour will take in relation to the number of homes they have in their basket.
• Show up to 5 days at a time when scheduling to give the message that it’s best to book a tour sooner than later.
• Nudge the user with a progress bar to maximise their time and book up to 10 homes for a tour.
• Copy changes to be clearer and concise.
Prototype:
Desktop - https://marvelapp.com/bh7i51e/screen/57521915
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/i036hbe/screen/58877430
UX Research:
Conduct UX test - UX Audit on the Search / Property details /Tour Basket / Scheduling / Qualification
Face to Face test with 6 users
Stake Holder Research Group:
Conduct stake holder research group on assumptions and ideas around the OKRs of getting ‘Users on Tour’ and grading its impact and tech effort to build.
STEP 5
Qualification & Payment
To productise and automate the booking process, Homie promise agents pre-qualified customers so the flow is seamless and quick, so users do not miss out on a quick moving London rental market.
Problem:
How can Homie cut operation costs and time spent on the phone with customers to qualify them for estate agents.
Solution & Opportunity:
• To create a self-qualifying check list for the users to complete. User research shows that users prefer to complete a form rather than speak and get interviewed over the phone.
• Provide an option to schedule a call if a user prefers.
• Give value in completing a key step to fast track themselves in the process. Once a user is qualified they proceed to payment.
• An interstitial animation between scheduling and qualification notifies the benefits of the checklist form so users understand the importance of the step.
• Homie and agent relationships improved knowing that Homie provides quality applicants that have been screened.
• Reduced the cost of Customer Support team
Prototype:
Desktop - https://marvelapp.com/bh7i51e/screen/57562840
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/i036hbe/screen/57757401
STEP 6
Tour is Ready
Once a Homie has contacted all agents to book a back to back tour for the customer, they schedule and send the Tour itinerary to the customer.
Problem:
Users were impatient and left in the dark about how long it would take to book all the viewings. Users wanted to have a visual map of what their tour entailed.
Solution & Opportunity:
• Notifications every time a property is booked so the user knows there is progress happening.
• Included a map and times so users can visualise the route they will be embarking on with Homie in a black cab.
• Add commenting functionality for users and their flat mates to collaborate.
• Include FAQs about Tours to give users more information about questions they may be asking themselves.
Prototype:
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/94ghjj6/screen/59284547
STEP 7
Make an Offer
Once users have completed their viewing, their status changes on the web app and they are able to make an offer on a home they liked or if they didn’t like any of them they are able to select more homes and create another tour.
Problem:
To reduce making offers over the phone with Homie operations team to create a more automated, efficient and scaleable business.
Solution & Opportunity:
• To create a simplified experience for the customer to make an offer.
• Once a user has seen a property, they can make an offer on the spot using the Homie web app.
• Users are notified if the offer is pending, rejected or accepted.
• Make counter offers
Prototype:
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/94ghjj6/screen/59284548
Design Library
Handoff for Developers
• Use Marvel Handoff with developers alongside the Design library guides.
• QA Front end to fine check CSS output.
Homie UI/UX 2017
Onboarding screens